Rob Manfred Should Resign or Be Fired For How He Handled the Houston Astros Scandal

Rob Manfred needs to resign before he gets fired. It is the only way he can come close to saving face in the shadow of the Houston Astros cheating scandal. If he doesn't leave now, he's just going to be beaten up in the press and on social media until MLB owners have no choice but to vote him out of his position.

Manfred was the man in charge when a team cheated in plain sight, all the way to a World Series championship. Then they kept doing it and almost won another. As soon as the scandal went public, we started hearing that teams had known the Astros had been cheating for years. It's one thing for this to never become public. It's another to hear rumors that something like this is happening under your nose and do nothing to try and stop it.

In fact, Manfred and MLB did the opposite. Instead of trying to stop the cheating that led to pitchers and catchers needing to change up their signs multiple times a game to stop the sign-stealing, they passed a rule to limit mound visits. (Please click on that and marvel at the quote from Alex Cora and the bit about communication between the dugout and the video replay room.)

When the Astros' cheating finally became public knowledge late last year, Manfred made the decision to grant immunity to the players involved in the worst baseball scandal since the Chicago Black Sox threw the World Series 100 years ago.

In the end, the Astros faced little punishment. They lost a few draft picks and were forced to find a new manager and general manager and pay a small $5 million fine for a company worth nearly two billion dollars. A small price to pay for a World Series.

Faced with further criticism about the lack of punishment, Manfred blamed the Players Union and called the World Series trophy, one of the most famous awards in the history of American sports, a "piece of metal."

Players hate him or the choices he has made. Owners should have no confidence in him. He's given teams zero reason to stop cheating. He's disrespected the game and the thing that every player has worked his entire life to hold. There is no coming back from this. It's time for MLB and Rob Manfred to part ways - one way or another.